What did Paul preach in Philippi?

I’m helping lead a pilgrimage through Greece in the footsteps of St Paul. Andrew Nunn and myself are blogging here. Here’s a third post from me from the splendid archeological site of Philippi…

Paul sets foot on European soil for the first time, probably in the winter of 49AD. But what did he find at the port of Neapoli, modern day Kavala? What religious scene greeted him?

It would have been an important question for him too. Paul tells us he tailored his message to connect with his listeners. He was a Jew to the Jews and a Greek to the Greeks. So what word would have struck a chord in Macedonia? The letter to the Philippians, though written years after his first arrival, provides evidence.

It seems his usual strategy was, first, to contact fellow diaspora Jews and/or those who reverenced Judaism, the so-called “god-fearers”, who were widespread throughout the Roman empire. They would understand the language of the Christ, the Messiah, even if they rejected it.

When he got to Philippi, just up the road from Neapoli, he found no synagogue but, Acts tells us, he went to a place of prayer by the river. There he met a group of women including Lydia, whose heart opened to what Paul said. She was baptised.

However, Paul was not only interested in engaging fellow Jews. His next encounter in Philippi, according to Acts, was with another woman, only this one had a “spirit of Python”. She was probably a prophetess from the Delphic Oracle, which is to say, a significant religious figure. No wonder the city was in uproar after Paul became annoyed with her and quashed her spirit.

It sounds like the story of a new religion casting out the old. But it’s more interesting that. Why, for example, did Paul became so annoyed by the prophetess? She was proclaiming correctly that he was from the “Most High God”. I suspect the incident reveals another side to Paul’s ability to connect and persuade: he himself had spiritual abilities that deeply impressed.

The historian Ramsay MacMullen paints a vivid picture of the pagan milieu into which Paul had landed. “(People’s) senses were assaulted by messages directing their attention to religion; shouts and singing in public places to an accompaniment as loud as ancient instruments could sound; applause for highly ornate prose paeans; enactment of scenes from the gods’ stories performed in theaters and amphitheaters; the god-possessed swirl of worshippers coming down the street to the noise of rattles and drums.”

To make an impression, which he clearly did, Paul had to be able to outclass the tumult with his own displays of supernormal power. It apparently came easily to him. In Acts, we read time and time again of how he healed and exorcised, prophesied and even seemingly caused earthquakes. Paul could channel quite a show. As he told the Corinthians, he did not have to use persuasive words of wisdom. He was a spiritual adept.

But if spectacle was part of what helped Paul connect with the Greeks, there was a further side to his appeal. This was more subtle, and perhaps longer lasting. It was Paul’s authority as a mystic, which is to say, he could communicate a profoundly felt experience of the divine.

Mysticism, too, was integral to the ancient religious scene. At Philippi, the grave of Euephenes has been excavated. He was probably an initiate into the cult of the Kabeiroi. The heroon of Euephenes was discovered in tact because it had been incorporated into subsequent Christian buildings.

This respect suggests to me that Paul must have been recognised as the representative of a mystery religion too. There are echoes of this dynamic in the letter to the Philippians as well. Paul writes of having “the same mind as Christ”; of “overflowing more and more with knowledge and full insight”. It’s here we find the mystical hymn of Christ emptying himself and “taking the form of a servant”. He also hopes to “know the resurrection and make it his own”.

Paul’s message must have been rich. He had wisdom that could speak to the Jews; power that could persuade the pagans; and an ability to manifest the mystical side of life. He was a Jew to the Jews and a Greek to the Greeks in such a way that his arrival still speaks two millennia on.

Image: The mosaic floor of the Octagon church that incorporates the heroon of Euephenes.